The death toll in the Mumbai hoarding collapse incident went up to 16 on Thursday after two more bodies were pulled out from under the rubble. The bodies of a retired Air Traffic Control (ATC) officer and his wife were the last to be retrieved as rescue operations came to an end in Ghatkopar on May 16.
Retired ATC manager Manoj Chansoria, 60, and his wife Anita, 59, were in their car when the massive hoarding in Ghatkopar collapsed on a petrol pump. The couple was among the 90 other trapped under the illegal hoarding, which fell on the petrol pump amid heavy dust storms in Mumbai.
Manoj and Anita's whereabouts had been unknown since Monday evening, when they left the ATC guest house in Western Mumbai in a Tata red car for Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh.
On the day the hoarding collapsed in Ghatkopar, Manoj's mobile phone was tracked to the location of the incident. The couple had stopped at the Chheda Nagar petrol pump to refill their tank. Their car was later identified under the rubble, and NDRF attempted to dig through the debris to rescue the couple.
Read more: Mumbai hoarding collapse: Death toll rises to 16 after 2 more bodies retrieved | Top updates
An NDRF official identified that there were two bodies inside a car trapped below the middle main girder of the five girders of the hoarding the same night. Relief team attempted to crawl to the car, but it was impossible to reach the couple without moving the girder.
{{/usCountry}}An NDRF official identified that there were two bodies inside a car trapped below the middle main girder of the five girders of the hoarding the same night. Relief team attempted to crawl to the car, but it was impossible to reach the couple without moving the girder.
{{/usCountry}}The search and rescue team used gas cutters to and other heavy machinery to cut through the girder crushing the car. Earlier, BMC said that the relief team is not able to cut through the rubble because of the highly inflammable nature of the materials stored at the petrol pump.
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After learning that Manoj's last mobile location was at the Chheda Nagar petrol pump, family members and friends had been camping at the site fearing that he and his wife were trapped there.
The illegal hoarding in Mumbai's Ghatkopar collapsed on Tuesday after heavy rains and dust storms lashed parts of the city. The civic body said that the reason behind the collapse was the weak foundation of the pillar it was suspended upon.
(With inputs from PTI)